For the next generation of students, University Park won't peter out beyond the curb of North Atherton Street.
The small cluster of freshly minted buildings that now make up West Campus will expand during the next 15 to 20 years into a sizable complex of academic and residential quads. At the focal point will be what planners are calling the "landmark" Information Sciences and Technology Building, designed to connect new and old.
The Penn State Board of Trustees caught a glimpse of this future development Friday, when it approved refinements to the University Park Campus Master Plan, gave the go-ahead to preliminary sketches for the IST Building and began final planning for graduate student housing.
Eliza Pennypacker, who is stepping down from her full-time job as director of campus planning and design, said revisions to the Master Plan focused on tackling five challenges for the West Campus area: traffic and transportation, pedestrian safety, the IST building, a campus connection and good design.
"The plan we've developed is exciting, a bit radical and the only solution that we've found that successfully meets all five of the challenges," she said.
IST building
One of the most innovative features of the IST building will answer the need to link West Campus "visibly and symbolically" to the core campus, Pennypacker said.
"It can't be perceived as a remote outpost," she warned.
A gently sloping pedestrian walkway will rise from the east at the current intersection of Pollock and Burrowes Roads, curve as it bridges North Atherton Street and descend just north of the Research West Building.
Midway up, the "campus connector" will pass directly through the spine of the IST building. Three floors of classrooms, offices, study spaces and a "cybertorium" will envelop the passageway, providing space for the IST school and the computer science department.
Rafael Viñoly Architects P.C. and Perfido Weiskopf Associates created the serpentine design for the building, modeling it after the river-spanning Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence, Italy. A world-renowned firm, Viñoly is also at work on the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia with a cello-shaped orchestra hall in the center.
Before approving the new sketches, Trustee Geoff Grivner and others brought up concerns about the potential for excessive noise in the building's bridge and the problem of closing Atherton Street during construction.
Pennypacker said the architects are concentrating on ways to minimize the effect of sound vibrations from the roadway. But she acknowledged that the street may have to be partially or entirely closed during construction of the span, and that the university will be working "very carefully" with PennDOT to plan rerouting.
IST Dean James Thomas also quelled worries about the effect of traffic vibrations on special computer equipment, assuring the trustees that all such sensitive gear will be located on either of the ground floor wings of the building, set apart from the road.
Townhouse, apartment housing
Single graduate students and those with families will find more spacious and modern accommodations in a new group of flats and townhouses to be built on the west side of West Campus.
More than 600 people are to occupy the projected 199 units, split between 75 four-bedroom suite apartments to the east and 124 townhouses of varying sizes arrayed to the west.
Located at the nucleus of the complex, planners hope to place a community center including a study room, mailroom, kitchen, a lounge area with a fireplace and conference spaces. Parking for 379 vehicles will accompany the housing.
In accord with most of Penn State's recent construction projects, the buildings will have predominantly brick facades on a scale intended to suggest the "feel of a residential neighborhood," according to a university release.
Price tags on the two latest West Campus projects come to a cost similar to that of the Beaver Stadium expansion currently nearing completion.
The IST building, which will probably secure a groundbreaking by late summer or early fall, has an estimated budget of $58.5 million. And bids for the graduate housing are expected to be around the $30 million mark.
Penn State President Graham Spanier said these new buildings will help to reduce crowding of housing and classroom space, while fostering university research programs. Lack of funding at the moment should not prevent the work from continuing, he said.
"We are committed to doing the (IST) building one way or another, but we don't have an announcement about any state contribution," Spanier said. "We expect some significant portion of the funds . . . to come from philanthropy."
The rest of West Campus
Fitting the new construction into the long-term Master Plan will require tweaking traffic patterns, Pennypacker said.
Planners want West Campus to remain mostly pedestrian-oriented with two roads ringing the edges — White Course Drive to the north and West Campus Drive to the south.
To accommodate the campus connector and IST building, Pollock Road will be closed to vehicles between Atherton Street and Burrowes Road.
An extension of Curtin Road heading west to Atherton Street will replace that access point. It will eliminate, however, most of the parking spaces available in front of Rec Hall. A small short-term lot will be added next to the Nittany Lion Shrine.
Last semester, members of the Penn State community voiced objections to allowing cars to pass so close to the shrine.
Friday, Pennypacker attempted to alleviate such misgivings.
"Civic spaces" was something she repeated throughout her presentation, indicating efforts to preserve as many trees as possible in the wooded area in front of the Nittany Lion Inn and to landscape a buffer area in front of the shrine and Rec Hall.
"The Nittany Lion would no longer be partially hidden behind a sea of cars," Pennypacker said. "The West Campus plan is a large and complex effort, and we are extremely fortunate to be working with some of the best design and traffic consultants in the country."
